Fuel materials may take on a variety of forms from simple gases, such as hydrogen, to complex mixtures including aviation fuels. Due to their wide range of chemical compositions, chemical fuels may be generated through a variety of processes and may require facilities dedicated to synthesizing only a small number of possible fuel types. Such facilities may be optimized to generate only the fuels to which they are dedicated. Additionally, each facility may require a specific set of feed-stocks or precursor materials for fuel synthesis.
Typically, carbon-based fuels rely on thermal methods for their synthesis. Such methods may include pyrolysis, cracking, and endothermic synthesis steps. Such processes may generate excessive heat as a by-product of their synthetic methods. Further, such thermal chemistry-based synthetic methods may not be efficient even for an optimized facility.
Syngas presents an alternative feedstock from which a variety of fuels may be produced. Syngas is composed primarily of a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide gases. These two components may be used under a variety of synthetic conditions to create several different types of fuel material. It is, therefore, desirable to have a production facility capable of synthesizing syngas having specified proportions of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and which can then be used to produce a wide variety of fuels. It may further be desirable for such a production facility to optimize the production of such fuels and syngas through the reduction or prevention of soot formation during the formation of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide gas.